Impact from sand and other debris can be detrimental to the lifetime of rotating components such as helicopter blades. In a desert environment, blade leading edges are exposed to both rain and sand erosion.
One attempt at protecting blade leading edges is to use a leading edge metallic erosion strip consisting of nickel (Ni) on an outboard portion and titanium (Ti) on the inboard portion of the blade. The metallic strips are further protected by polymeric tapes or coating even though these are generally less effective in rain erosion conditions.
Other attempts at increasing the life of rotor blades can be found in U.S. patent application publication no. 2005/0169763, for example, which uses a strip of resilient polymer adhered to the leading edge of the blade. Others have simply placed a ceramic component onto the leading edge of the rotor blade, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,447,254, 5,782,607, and 5,542,820. Still others have capped the leading edge with a nanoparticle-reinforced elastomer, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,747. However, the above prior art attempts do not increase the time between maintenance of the rotor blades and decrease costs.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved erosion resistant helicopter rotor blade. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.